In 2000, the Scottish Executive published ‘The same as you?’ a ten year programme to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities in Scotland. Following a two year review, last year they published a new ten year strategy, known as ‘The keys to life – Improving Quality of Life for People with Learning Disabilities’, [read the full story…]
This study explores the prevalence of psychiatric disorder and comorbidity among a UK sample of young people with experience of homelessness. It finds an extremely high prevalence of mental illness, combined with low levels of mental health service use.
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Self-directed support is described by InControl as an approach to social care which gives people optimum choice and control over their support arrangements. People with social care needs are offered funding to organise their own support, rather than being offered a directly provided service. There is now a clear policy direction in England and Scotland [read the full story…]
The link between external influences such as family and neighbourhood experiences and young people’s mental health outcomes has been extensively commented on in the literature. While it is more common for studies to focus on the individual or family level, looking at things from a wider perspective is interesting especially from a public mental health [read the full story…]
Background Personalised or individualised supports are those which respond to unique needs of an individual, which focus on their personal assets and abilities; accentuate choice and control and are delivered in the community alongside other citizens. In recent years in the Republic of Ireland, there has been an increasing focus in public policy on personalisation [read the full story…]
This is a very important document, particularly for commissioners, prison health professionals, and prison workers because it is trying to overcome the vicious circle that faces offenders when they leave prison, which is finding housing and employment while maintaining their health and re-integrating back into society. Alcohol, drug misuse, other addictions, and mental health issues are [read the full story…]
Active support involves training staff in working practices and organisational procedures to improve levels of participation and increase levels of engagement in activities and the authors of this study have written about its effectiveness elsewhere In this study, they set out to explore the characteristics of the residents who were being supported by organisations implementing [read the full story…]
A key question facing commissioners of support services is how to develop personalised quality services for people within an increasingly tighter financial envelope. Some recent research published by Social Finance and Community Catalysts, may suggest one approach that could prove to be of benefit in developing community connections for people as well as reducing costs. [read the full story…]
The authors of this study were interested in looking at support to adults with autism spectrum disorder in staffed housing services. Their focus was on looking at whether diagnostic congregation, or grouping people with similar diagnoses, was prevalent in services and if so, whether it had any impact on outcomes. They worked with 157 adults [read the full story…]
Choice is one of the four fundamental principles of Valuing People, the white paper produced in 2001 to guide development of support for people with learning disabilities in England. This US study looks at this principle in practice using data from the 2008–2009 National Core Indicators Project. They looked at the impact of a number [read the full story…]
